In general, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method and a presentation medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method and a presentation medium which allow information on an application object (abbreviated hereafter to an AO) in a 3-dimensional virtual space to be reported to an avatar.
In a 3-dimensional virtual space on the Internet, a plurality of objects are provided with information on a position and a “Dive” system is known as a system which allows the objects to share the information on position. Details of the “Dive” system are described in a reference entitled “DIVE—A Platform for Multi-user Virtual Environments” authored by C. Carlsson and O. Hagsand, 18(6) Computers and Graphics, pages 633–669 (1993).
In the “Dive” system, however, the information is shared among all objects existing in the world, so that as the number of objects rises, there is raised a problem of an increased number of messages (an increased amount of information) exchanged among the objects.
In order to solve this problem, an area referred to as an aura is defined for each object. An aura is a spatial area perceivable by an object defined for each object in which the object is capable of sensing other objects. Since only objects placed in the same area share information, the amount of information shared by objects can be suppressed even if the number of objects existing in the world increases. Details of this aura technique are described in a reference entitled “Virtual Society: Extending the WWW to Support a Multi-user Interactive Shared 3D Environment” authored by Yasuaki Honda et al., Proceedings of VRML '95, pages 109 to 116 (ACM Press 1995). Details of the aura concept are described in a reference entitled “A Spatial Model of Interaction in Large Virtual Environments” authored by S. Benford and L. Fahlen in September 1993, in proceedings of G. DeMichelis et al. (Eds.) presented to a Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, pages 109 to 124 (Kluwer Academic Publishers).
By the way, an AO (application object) also exists in a 3-dimensional virtual space. An AO is a program having a variety of additional functions in the 3-dimensional virtual space. The program is executed on an AO server.
In the technique utilizing the aura as described above, however, when acertain object (including an avatar) wants to sense an AO, such as a clock tower which is far away from the object, there is raised a problem that the object is not capable of sensing the AO if the AO is located outside the aura of the object.